Help figuring out if I can build a yurt in Brooklyn

[Bob Rowlands]

FWIW, I've had moderate snow depth to probably about 10"? or so my 16' yurt. I've definitely had 5" -6" of very wet snow up there as well. I have 1x3 rafters, and no baganas. Yes that is one heck of a lot of weight. The 3/16ths

tension cable

handles it no problem.

I've seen snow pack atop yurt in pictures a few FEET deep in online photos. Yurts can take absolutely mind blowing snow load IF they have a good steel

tension cable

. Redundabncy of rafters and lattice makes them probably a magnitude stronger than any other tent design for inclement conditions. IMO, THE perfect tent. Thanks Mongolians

[hierony]

Thank you Bob! I've lurked this forum quite a bit looking for people's snow load experiences--I was trying to design my own yurt and the local codes called for 20-85 psf for snow (for a 20' yurt, 3-13 tons...). Your 6" of heavy, wet snow on a 16' yurt works out to ~2800 lbs, or 80 lbs/roof pole, or 14 psf, assuming 45% water by volume & 35 roof poles.

From the modern yurts I've seen, they beef up the roof poles to high grade (2400 or so) 2x4 and reduce roof pole number (~30?) and use a much sparser lattice, relying on vertical studs on the wall in heavy snow. The

camping yurts

I've seen use a moderate number of roof poles (30-40 1x3") with a moderately spaced lattice and a relatively thin crown ring. The traditional mongolian yurts use a lot of roof poles (60+, 2x2) with much closer spaced lattice and a hefty crown ring, supported by bagana (effectively halving the roof span). All the weight going into the tension band/cable also goes through the crown ring, which is what worries me about a camping yurt with snow...